How did the guys up at Arthur’s Hall come up with the idea of giving the world such a list of video games? Shatner (yes, after William Shatner), Arthur’s Viking Assistant, gives us the details:

I had a discussion with Arthur the other day regarding the question, “Are video games manly?” While wasting your life away on a couch playing video games isn’t quite as manly as killing small animals for food, or going to war against the forces of tyranny, we decided that in the end, video games are a manly form of entertainment.

Here’s how I went through Arthur’s Hall’s list:

Pro Wrestling on the Nintendo Entertainment System … check. Counter-Strike on the PC … check. Double Dragon on the NES, in the Arcade, and on the Sega Master System … check. Street Fighter II on multiple systems … check. Ikaruga on the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube … what the hell’s Ikaruga? Tecmo Bowl on the NES … never played it since American Football is a very alien sport in my country. Metal Slug on the Neo Geo … check. Custer’s Revenge on the Atari 2600 … yeah, saw it when I was younger but didn’t understand the object of the game (which was to order General Custer to, uhmmm, ravish a young Indian girl). Mike Tyson’s Punch Out on the NES … check. And finally Contra on the NES … perfect!

Then I thought, “Waitaminute! Where’s Leisure Suit Larry?

Leisure Suit Larry is the series of adventure games written by Al Lowe (hail to the chief!) and published by Sierra On-Line from the 1980s to the present. The character, whose full name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing “loser” in his 40s who spends much of his life trying, usually unsuccessfully, to seduce attractive women.

Undoubtedly, Leisure Suit Larry is the manliest game of all time … that is, if Larry is a bit more manly looking. But where’s the adventure in playing a good-looking, hunky guy in his 40s with the goal of chasing, always successfully, nubile young and attractive women?

Here’s a short overview courtesy of Wikipedia:

Leisure Suit Larry originally stemmed from ideas of Sierra’s first adventure game Softporn Adventure created by designer Chuck Benton. The Larry games were one of Sierra’s most popular games series during the genre’s heyday when it was first released in the mid 1980s. As such, they remain well-known among fans of the type today. The series stands out among Sierra’s catalog in that they are the only games the company produced that contain significant sexual themes.

In general, the games follow Larry’s escapades as he attempts (and mostly fails) to convince a variety of young nubile women (rendered with increasing sophistication throughout the series) to have sex with him. A common link between the games are Larry’s explorations of luxurious and cosmopolitan hotels, ships, beaches, resorts and, more commonly, casinos. One of Larry’s trademarks is his manner of introducing himself: “Hi, my name is Larry; Larry Laffer,” a reference to James Bond’s introduction style, “My name is Bond; James Bond.”

Because of the nature of the games, the first and third episodes of the series featured an age verification system, which consisted of a series of questions to which the authors reasoned only adults would know the answer. However, many of the questions were United States-centric and this frustrated some non-U.S. gamers. Also, the multiple-choice questions did little to deter adolescents with some patience and a notepad.

Post from: EveryJoe

10 Manliest Video Games of All Time: What, no Leisure Suit Larry?!?

Well, regardless of which video you choose, one thing’s for certain: They’re both better than the video I showed you in my previous posting, Gordon Freeman in Mario Land.

My only beef with the guys who did the modifications is the way they presented the world of Super Mario Brothers. Come on! The game Super Mario Brothers may be side-scrolling and set in a two-dimensional world, but having Gordon Freeman walk a narrow blocky terrain in 3D isn’t exactly a good translation of the Super Mario Brothers world’s physics.

Hmmm, probably has something to do with Half-Life’s Steam engine.

Post from: EveryJoe

Gordon Freeman in Mario Land #2

Waitaminute! This blog isn’t about comic books! Duh! It’s about retro and classic video games. So where are the crossovers in the video gaming realm? Believe it or not, the most well known crossover in this world still has something to do with comic books. Ever heard of the Marvel versus Capcom series?

Here’s a little backgrounder courtesy of Wikipedia:

Marvel vs Capcom is a series of fighting games created by Capcom in which characters created by Marvel Comics and Capcom’s own characters appear together. While it was the first versus series involving Capcom, the name Marvel exists to distinguish it from Capcom’s other versus series with SNK, Tatsunoko Production, and Namco’s crossover role-playing game with Capcom, Namco x Capcom.

The Marvel characters depicted in these games were often based on their incarnations in various early 1990s animated series (particularly X-Men), and were often voiced by the same voice actors.

Many of the characters and fighting mechanics used in these games were first developed and refined in two other fighting games Capcom had developed earlier, serving as precursors to the series: X-Men: Children of the Atom, which featured characters strictly from the X-Men universe, and Marvel Super Heroes, which gleaned characters from Marvel’s entire roster (X-Men included).

Although the tag-team fighting concept was not new, it was refined with this series (although fans would argue whether this was for better or for worse). New fighting game terminology, such as “Aerial Rave” (the act of performing a combo on an opponent while the opponent remains airborne) and “Variable Combination” (the act of having two or more characters on the same team to perform their hyper combos at the same time) were added to the fighting game vernacular with this series.

Well, this post is not really about Marvel vs Capcom, but about a fantasy crossover between two very popular video game worlds, that of Super Mario Brothers and Gordon Freeman’s Half-Life. Go check out the video below:

Post from: EveryJoe

Gordon Freeman in Mario Land

Well, I was wrong. It’s even better than a speed run. Go check it out:

Post from: EveryJoe

Whoah! Half-Life in 60 seconds!

And by “serious slugfests,” I meant SERIOUS because every member of our eight-man barkada (a local slang used to describe a group of very good friends) needed to vent the daily stress associated with day jobs.

Yes! What better way to de-stress after a hard day’s work than video games. Our favorite “de-stresser” was Counter-Strike, which gave us countless hours of blood and gore gushing out of bodies riddled with bullets and grenade fragments. Hmmm, yes, an exaggeration, but that was just how I imagined my virtual enemies’ deaths.

Of course, there was also Half-Life—just as bloody as the mod it spawned. Personally, I loved using the crossbow—silent but deadly … very deadly.

Other “de-stressers,” like real-time strategy games like Starcraft, Command and Conquer, and Command and Conquer: Red Alert just didn’t cut it. Yeah, I got to deal a lot of damage, both to the forces of my foe (in this case, a friend) and his ego, but the feeling I got from it didn’t really reduce the pain in my head and body caused by stress.

I miss those days! I’d give anything (well, not really) to get another crack at several rounds of Counter-Strike or Half-Life with my friends. I really can’t vent in my current video game genre of choice at the moment: MMORPGs. Oh, yes, I could engage in player-versus-player combat, destroy the opposition in guild wars, ambush unsuspecting players who forget to turn off PK mode, but honestly all these only add to the stress I’m feeling.

Here’s a shout out to all members (and former members) of D[o]Gz, an online community of Counter-Strike players in the Philippines.

Image downloaded from ZDnet and modified by Joel. Characters in image are modified versions of those appearing in the game Counter-Strike, property of Valve.

Post from: EveryJoe

Venting out aggression in video games